Daoism Is Going Against the Conventional Flow

Going with the flow, in Quanzhen Daoism, is about reforming yourself such that when you "go with the flow" you radiate compassion on all of those around you. It is not about following one's "natural" inclinations - especially not unexamined following of desires.

In some sense, being spontaneous and natural is the ultimate goal, but only once you've consciously and intentionally restructured what "you want to do".

For that reason, the precepts are necessary training wheels to allow one to ultimately ride the flow. And to be clear, this isn't two months of training wheels, this is multiple lifetimes of training wheels. In my lineage, if someone has the notion that they're sufficiently evolved to not follow such codes, it is a pretty clear indication that this is precisely the person who needs the training wheels the most.

Quanzhen Longmen Daoism about going with the flow only insomuch as the flow is the golden light of goodness and compassion of true reality, which requires us excavate the misconceptions about the world we have developed through our limited perspectives.